burnt toast theory

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#1·1d ago

(Internet slang) The mindset that a seemingly negative event in a person's life could have actually prevented something even worse from occurring.

So many of us search for ideas like the burnt toast theory to help us find meaning in terrible moments, but why?

Origin: Possibly first used in a video posted April 4, 2023 to Instagram by [https://www.instagram.com/latenightepiphanies_/ @latenightepiphanies_], who explained: "it's basically the theory that if you burn your toast in the morning (something challenging happens), the time you spend making another toast may have saved you from a car accident. everything happens for a reason." The concept was popularized on TikTok around January 2024. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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